


M A N H U N T

by the_real_jared_kleinman



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Exiled TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, I make the rules here, Long-Haired Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Manhunt Clay | Dream, Medical Inaccuracies, Mentioned Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Other, Protective Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Protective TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Serious Injuries, Sympathetic Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, bc i can, he shows up like 3 times, idk im not a doctor but an arrow to the shoulder is kinda bad, this is manhunt dream not csmp dream i SWEAR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29793897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_real_jared_kleinman/pseuds/the_real_jared_kleinman
Summary: Dream's been running his whole life. From his past, his former friends, his shaky hands, his scars.He's never found a place quite like this though.-------When Dream tries to use a nether portal to escape the four men hunting him, he spawns not in the middle of the hot, sweltering Nether, but instead a seemingly peaceful winter village, with strange people who look and talk like people he used to know and people hunting him down, but so, so different. Terrified and confused, he runs into the nearby woods and keeps running, until he finds a seemingly abandoned cottage in the woods.
Relationships: Antfrost & Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & Darryl Noveschosch, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 165





	M A N H U N T

Dream had been running for what feels like forever.

Or maybe hunted was a more accurate term?

For what seems like months, maybe years, (it was hard to tell when you rarely slept and lived in the wilderness) Dream had been on the run; hunted down by people who _knew_ him, in the same way that a hunter knew the prey it hunted for the most often.

They knew his habits, the marks he left on the land, how he hunted for food, everything.

* * *

He knew them, too. George, Sapnap, Halo, Frost.

George was timid yet brave, knew when to back down and was easy to intimidate. Yet he also charged in recklessly, made wild assumptions, and underestimated Dream's intelligence often. He cared about Sapnap and Halo, but he was just as likely to help Frost as he was to leave him behind.

Sapnap was reckless in everything he did, from resource gathering to fighting, and always seemed up for a challenge. Yet he was also very observant, although that rarely helped him. He didn't care if one of the others got hit in an attack, and would just as easily ignore a threat to one of them if it meant catching Dream as a trade.

Halo was level-headed and pragmatic, their strategist and navigator. He thought of backup plans to his backup plans and was difficult for Dream to outsmart. But he was also easy to frighten, and if things went too awry from his calculations he was prone to panic. He also cared far too much for his comrades, and would back down easily if one of them were threatened.

Frost was quiet and faded into the background, content to mine for resources and easy to threaten into compliance. But when he was armed, Frost was a _nasty_ pvp'r, often one of the hardest to beat one-on-one. He didn't care about hostages, but if Dream threatened Halo then he would go feral.

* * *

Today was a resting day, the hunters far enough away that Dream could focus on adding more iron armor to his current getup. He finally had enough iron to create a new chestplate, his old iron one destroyed in an explosion that had nearly killed him, and would have if he didn't have a healing potion stashed in his bag.

He had just gotten it functional and strapped to his chest when his communicator flared to life. recently fixed and tuned into the channel the hunters used.

"We ready?" ...that was Halo. Oh, _gods._

Those words were enough to send him into a panic, shoving his supplies back into his bag and securing his mask over his face, tensing for movement.

"Go." George, too.

"I'm a go too, chief." Sapnap.

Oh no, a 3v1.

Last time they had talked like that, he'd had to trap them on the top of the Nether and get them to respawn without their _fucking prot.4 armor_.

He exhales slowly, forcing his shaky hands to still and his fears to quiet down.

He's not losing a life today.

Tuning back into the world around him, he closes his eyes and listens.

Branches swaying, bees buzzing, a nearby cow, a grazing sheep, rustling leaves, and... the scraping sound of a leather glove gripping rock coming from behind him to the left, in the cave where he found the iron ore.

Halo or Sapnap?

A pebble knocked loose under shoes from behind right.

Both, then.

He bolted, racing through the underbrush without so much as a whisper of footsteps or clothes snagged on branches.

The woods was his home, always was and always would be. He was found here, cared for here, and will always be home here.

The hunters? Not so much.

The woods disliked Halo, a demon in name and blood, and actively rejected his presence at all times, leading him in circles and out, away from Dream and towards rock or bleakness.

George and Sapnap simply barreled through, no care for the creatures or plants they trampled over in the need to get to Dream as fast as possible.

Ignorance of what you hurt makes Mother Nature angry. She understands that grass and things grow along the ground, and thus will be stepped over, but there are ways to make your steps lighter, ways to not step directly on flowers and roots and mushrooms so violently that the plants can't grow back as they were. She is not so forgiving to those who hurt Her creations without due cause or awareness or care.

Frost was of the Wild, as Dream was, but he wasn't as invested in Dream's bounty as the rest were. On multiple occasions he'd asked why they kept going after a prey that'd escaped so many times, but he was always ignored or yelled at. So if it came down to it, Ant would let him get away if it meant he got some more sleep or got to mine some more.

So Dream steps lightly, and the hunters do not, and She guides him through effortlessly while She thwarts those coming after him, and for that he'll always be grateful to Her.

So he runs, and they fall behind, and his communicator goes back to silence with the occasional hiss or spark of static as an old model far beyond it's replacement date.

He is granted another hour of reprieve, until he checks his distance and his pearls and realizes the hunters are _far_ too close for comfort right now.

And then he spots something in the distance that makes him want to whoop with joy.

A mostly intact Nether Portal, with only one block missing.

He gets to the portal, checks the chest, and sure enough, there's a obsidian block and a flint and steel, as well as a gold pauldron and a gold sword with _looting, unbreaking 2, and fire aspect on it?!_ Oh, he hasn't been this lucky in awhile.

He ducks through the newly made portal just as his communicator flares to life, and he's never been so grateful that comms don't work in the Nether.

* * *

When he comes through the other side of the portal, he isn't greeted with the fiery blazes of the Nether, but instead a freezing cold wind on his face.

He opens his eyes to a snowy wonderland. reminiscent of his only Christmas he'd celebrated as a kid, back when his mom and Drista were still alive and he wasn't hunted for sport because of his face.

He allowed himself a second to take it in, or maybe let go of himself a moment too long, because he snaps back into awareness at the portal activating behind him, and then he's off again, sprinting through the snow and this odd town he had teleported to and towards the woods he can see to the north.

He made it through the town easy enough, sliding along back alleys and side streets so he's not seen.

He itched for an invis pot right about now, though. He hated feeling exposed like this, even with his mask, because he should have gone to the Nether, and yet he's in this strange town that's nostalgic and terrifying and he needs to orient himself before the hunters find him again, learn the lay of the land and how Nature speaks here, needs to run _run **run don't stop running ~~hide hide away where they can never find you~~**_ but the thing he needs to do the most is stay calm and get into the woods.

The streets feel open, _exposed_ in a way most villages don't, the paths too wide and the houses far too ornate. It's a possibility that this is just rich people town, which means it's even more unsafe for somebody like Dream on the streets.

He just about passes the odd rainbow-castle thing when he spots Halo and George talking casually on the street, no armor or visible weapons, chatting happily, and Dream bluescreens so badly he trips over his own feet and faceplants directly into the cobblestone pathway.

The clanking of his armor against the pathway is enough to alert George and Halo, and he can hear them run over to him as he catapults himself into a standing position.

If they attack him. he can hold George hostage, possibly even 2v1 them if they won't let him leave peacefully.

But how did they get to the street before him, and have enough time to change clothes. remove their armor and weapons, and get _ahead_ of him?! He knows that he's faster than both of them combined, and they hadn't even made it through the portal yet when he left, so how?

It just didn't make any sense, so Dream did the rational thing.

When George and Halo got close, he sprinted off again.

They didn't follow, which was another odd thing.

Nothing made any sense anymore.


End file.
